day. that hail to northwest. you can see that color right there, that is definitely hail. get ready in stanley. we'll back the radar out and we'll also see big thunderstorms in the panhandle of west virginia. these are more moving northeastward up into hardy county and that area. hampshire county and hail right in thisrea just to the south of route 50 and again, these are moving off to the north and east. this is moving off, actually northeastward at 26 a pretty good clip. possibly some hail, size of quarters and some of the areas it's headed for, kirby at 7:25. so again, we are not out of the woods just yet. we'll come back and talk about our chances for storms. we are looking at the potential for more storms until late tonight. we'll give you a timetable. >> thank you for that, topper.

is it just a bust or are plans for expanding gambling in maryland and that new casino at national harbor perhaps about to go bust? speculation swirling in annapolis after drama at the state house tonight. the house of delegates started debate about two hours late on a bill that would bring gaming to prince georges county. the latest developments. ken. >> reporter: this is still going on here, derek, still a very con contention debate. it's not so much that people don't want this bill to pass. they want a piece of the pie. it's a very large lucrative pie. everybody wants a piece of it. they are adding their own concessions, hoping to get their own amendments passed. let's take you inside. the biggest change is an amendment that was approved by the house that would allow slot machines at vfw american legion. this happened an hour and a

half ago. this is why this is important. this concession would allow some of the rural counties that won't benefit throughout this state. it will allow them to get a piece of that pie that we're talking about. at stake are some $200 million in revenue. money that the state of maryland certainly needs to clear some of debts that they have. house leaders are going through individual amendments inside that have been proposed and that is expected to take several more hours. again, right now where we're at, the house is going to at some point, work on voting on a bill, send that back to the senate. we were hoping that would happen sometime late tonight. but at the rate we're going, this may not happen until early tomorrow morning. again, a lot of individual amendments to this bill that are being fielded right now on the house floor. of course we'll keep a close eye on everything and let you know what happens in annapolis. >> could be a late night, thank you. the house of delegates did give preliminary approval to a bill addressing who is liable for

dog bites. lawmakers did make tweaks to the senate version that passed. most notably, delegates limited the liability to owners of dogs that aren't on leashes. it's all a response to the court of appeals ruling that pit bulls are quote, inherently dangerous. only on 9, is the arlington county police department in a state of denial? over what just might be a possible identity theft scam that tried to con officers right there at work? here is what we do know. two women have been arrested down in atlanta charged in an identity theft scheme there that targeted atlanta cops. the women allegedly posed as aflac representatives. atlanta police say the women are posers and an aflac regional spokesperson tells us those two women were not affiliated with them in any way. in arlington, a source says one of those same women recently gave a presentation to arlington county police. it is feared they obtained officers private information.

and 9news has obtained an internal memo and in it, lieutenant david tells the staff. atlanta detectives learn the same suspects had been in the arlington county p.d. urges staff to check accounts for any suspicious activity. here's where things ben to get weird. public information officer tells us the police department's aflac representative tells them that the two women arrested in atlanta do work for aflac and there's no evidence anyone there was actually scammed. it appears some county police officers here are not buying that. the officer who gave us the internal memo says the officers are furious and he says, the department let those people in and represented them at legitimate. people were set up and the department is liable. end of quote. >> a major development tonight with the chinese based website known as id chief. back in may, we told you about teenagers using that site to get fake id's to buy booze

illegally. 9 wants you to know that will not be happening anymore. >> i'm andrea mccarren on capitol hill where four u.s. senators set a letter to china's ambassador asking that country to take immediate action against the fake id website known as id chief. >> their federal police are hard handed and wouldn't take lightly being internationally embarrassed by this letter. >> toarksd only a bizarre note remains posted on id chief's website, urging customers only to use their existing fake id's for buying beer in movies. the business goes on to explain it was only trying to help students have some fun. >> they were making $20 to $40 million a year. this is a big, big business. >> the wildly popular website has been producing fake id's that are so sophisticated, they can pass through scanners designed to detect fraudulent

cards and prevent minors from buying alcohol. >> they have been successful in buying liquor at liquor stores. for the second straight day, the metropolitan washington air force authority feeling the heat from local leaders. the u.s. department secretary, d.c.'s mayor, and the governors of maryland and virginia signed a letter expressing their outrage over a recent audit that found questionable spending. now, they want immediate changes. >> i'm bruce leshan at dulles. $9,000 first class trips to europe, $400 bottles of wine. the letter from the mayor, the transportation secretary, and the governors does not offer any threats, but it does say a number of reforms must be instituted immediately. the air force board is building rail to dulles as well as

running dulles and reagan national. >> i'm committed to be corrected. >> it is accused of all kinds of questionable deals. the letter demands the board terminate no bid contracts with former employees. terminate former board members who have gotten jobs at the airport. the board responded with an e- mail to the media saying it has already implemented many of these changes. >> those are easily fixed things. they should have been done a long time ago. shame for not doing it up to now. >> at dulles, 9news now. >> on now through a 9news update, prince georges county fire chief has transferred all the career firefighters out of a river dale station leaving just volunteer firefighters to man the post. this follows some long standing trouble between the career employees and their volunteer counterparts. union officials say the trouble grew out of a female career firefighter's complaints about harassment. >> still to come, more than 52% of maryland is dealing with

a drought, but that could be a good thing at least for the chesapeake bay. we'll explain why. but first, both president obama and mitt romney continue their swing state push to message to some of america's energy producers comes your way next.

both president obama and republican presidential candidate, mitt romney, continued their swing state pitch today. the two hit the campaign trail in different states. romney was talking to coal miners in west virginia while the president was touring a wind farm in iowa. the message was about the same. the other guy's energy policy is all wrong. >> he also said you can go out and build a new coal plan if you want, but if you do, you'll go bankrupt. that's another promise he is intent on keeping. >> my opponent says he wants to end tax credits for wind energy. he has called these sources of energy imaginary. his new running mate called

them a fad. i think a lot of folks in iowa would disagree. >> president obama will spend a third day campaigning in iowa tomorrow. romney is heading down south, north carolina, alabama, they have fundraisers. >> verison now admits it made some mistakes in how it responded to the 911 outage during june. more than a million people in northern virginia had no way to call emergency services after backup power systems failed. the company report says verison dent know about the problem until fairfax county called them and then it treated it like a service complaint instead of a major outage. verison will present the full report to the metropolitan washington council of government tomorrow. a hot and muggy day leads to yet another stormy night. topper has the latest on severe weather roaming around out there. that's coming up. but first, it is nicknamed a footpath for those who seek fellowship with the wilderness. and today marks 75 years since it was completed. a look at the history of the

appalachian trail. up next. [ male announcer ] the choice on debt...

mitt romney's plan: huge tax cuts for millionaires, tax breaks for oil companies and corporations that ship jobs overseas, adding trillions to the deficit. president obama's plan: a balanced approach that asks the wealthy to pay a little more, eliminates tax breaks for outsourcing and oil subsidies, cuts government spending, and reduces the deficit by four trillion. two plans. your choice. [ obama ] i'm barack obama and i approve this message.

75 years ago today, the final part of the appalachian trail was cleared and marked with its iconic white blade. now more than 2 million people visit some part of it every year and more than 1800 of them will try to hike the whole 2,180 miles to maine. just one in four will get the whole thing done. greg headed to the trail

headquarters in harper's ferry to learn more about the appeal of the at. >> boots on the ground to celebrate a birthday. >> the appalachian trail is an experience of a lifetime. >> to be exact, today is the 75th birthday of the appalachian trail. this morning, several of the nearly 6,000 volunteers who maintained the trail took a hike of celebration along this stretch near harper's ferry. >> come to a beautiful vista like this and just kind of contemplate about what is important in life and then go back home with a sense of peace and tranquility. >> appalachian trail is the longest hike only footpath in the world. it stretches from maine to georgia. >> it is a gap where the potomac crash through this ridge line. >> each year, nearly 500 hikers canvas the entire footpath. it takes nearly five months.

entries in a record book like 1,000 miles, baby, or done it, describe the track. hikers say a surprise lies around every corner. >> i can't fire where everyone would relax and just talk about anything and everything. >> but with all the beauty comes challenges. >> encrouchment as population grows, people tend to have competing uses. >> challenges met on this 75th birthday by thousands of volunteers. >> the treadway is the body of the trail, but its soul rests in the stewardship of the volunteers. >> along the appalachian trail in harper's ferry, west virginia, greg, 9news now. >> those volunteers spend about 220,000 every year maintaining the appalachian trail. for those who still buy actual printed dictionaries, you'll find a slew of brand-new words and phrases in the latest

edition which hits the bookstores tomorrow. among the addition, f bomb, sexting, energy drink, life coach, aha moment, and that is a vegetarian who sometimes eats meat or fish. we told you how the drought is hurting farmers on the eastern shore, but there may be a silver lining. it's helping the chesapeake bay. the maryland department of natural resources says 12% of the bay is now classified as a dead zone. that's about half the average size of a summer. those dead zones are places where the oxygen levels are so low that marine life can't survive. but this year's dry weather has reduced the algae plumes blooms that suck up all the oxygen. the bay is more alive than ever. >> good crabs in the bay. >> unfortunately, if you live on land, you are really dry. >> yes, you are. we have new warnings out to the

south and west of town. we are looking at severe thunderstorm warning through the i-81 corridor and in the mountains as well. let's start with live doppler 9,000. you can access this on our website. the storms haven't moved much. i thought they were going to move quicker. for the most part, they kind of hammered, especially rockingham county. culpeper, you're under a warning. orange, green, and the south and west, you're under a warning. we will zoom up first to this storm. this still has a warning going on in the panhandle of west virginia, harding. there was some hail and i scanned this five minutes ago north of del ray. a heavy storm, we are looking at rain fall rates of an inch per hour. this is off to the north and east. could kind of graze the bridge. now we'll go back to the south and to the west. by far and away, this is the heaviest activity. there was a solid line of hail down 340 a minute ago.

it moved further east around stanley. you can see that right there and this is all the heavy rain. back this back out, and we'll show you where the storms are going to go. haven't moved much really since about 3:00 this afternoon. we'll put this into motion. we are seeing this storm head toward culpeper, you're under a warning as well and mainly those storms moving east, trying to duck south of 66 and these storms are trying to move north and go into the panhandle of west virginia and maryland. we will certainly keep you posted all night. we are always on at wusa9.com. >> a live look outside, brought to you by michael and son. we hit 90 today. that's day 44 of 90 or higher since june 1. 85. a little bit uncomfortable. pressure falling 29.82 inches of mercury. radar and lightning. a will the of thunderstorms back to the west of us and the front itself is back to the west of that. so, we have some time to go before we can sound the all clear and certainly the biggest threat will be west of town. 81 right now in bethesda.

still 85 in rockville. 83 in vienna, 84 in old town. 84 also in college park. so, we're looking at severe storms possible. critical time between now and 1:00 a.m. main threats are hail and damaging wind. isolated tornadoes, but i'm not concerned about that as we were earlier. and secure loose objects. you have time in the immediate metro area to walk the dog and put down your umbrella on your porch or patio. thunderstorms tonight, some heavy or severe. lows 68 to 74. winds out of the southeast at 10. a little sticky inside the beltway. tonight we're talking mid to low 70s. a smattering of 60s north and west. 69 in gaithersburg. 70 in reston. 70 in fairfax and 72 over toward college park and bowie. tomorrow morning, a late shower possible, but a dry morning commute. 70s and 80s. by afternoon, isolated storms tomorrow and those that develop could be hefty. they'll be isolated. winds westerly at 10. next three days, because of

those isolated storms, 87. code green on thursday. great day. hot, but not humid. and more storms on friday. especially later in the day, 92 for a high. some of those storms could be hefty. next seven days. that's the second front that rolls through on friday. sets the stage for a nice saturday, but more showers, not so much severe weather, but showers on sunday, low to mid 80s. nice on monday and tuesday. temperatures in the low to mid 80s again. those 60s are downtown. we might peek into the upper 50s monday night. >> looking forward to that. we'll be back. i got the chance to start my own business.

i know what it's like to hire people and to make ends meet. from those experiences, i had the chance of running the olympics. the games were in real trouble. there'd been way too much spending. and in massachusetts i found a budget that was badly out of balance. our legislature was 85% democrat. and every one of the four years i was governor, we balanced the budget. i want to use those experiences to help americans have a better future. we believe in our future. we believe in ourselves. we believe the greatest days of america are ahead. i'm mitt romney and i approve this message.

in the mail bag tonight, we are bubbling over with your comments regarding that truck driving around northern virginia this week. the graphic photos of aborted fetuses on the side. it is a purposely horrible antiabortion message. and aj says it is about time.

abortion is an ugly topic. abortion is an ugly thing. i saw more images in your one story than i have seen on television since 1973. why? because of the ugly truth was seen for what it is, abortion would be recriminallized tomorrow. as well it should be. but then there was this from ann in falls church. is it all right to show graphic pictures of what guns do to people? how about that boy accidentally killed himself in prince william county last week. should replaster the side of a van with his picture? i think as a civilized southeast society, we should choose about making arguments, not seek the most disturbing way to shock so many people. but susan says perhaps we all need to take it down a notch. i believe life begins at the time of conception. truck with the pictures of aborted children very offensive. points of view down the throats of those who oppose us, we forget to consider the impact

on those around us. i will never support abortion, i will also never interfere with anyone exercising their right. live and let live, people. i like what you are saying. the antiabortion types would say letting fetuses live is what they are trying to do. we are trying to air your comments. mailbag@wusa9.com is our address. that's our report, i'll be right back here at 11:00. we'll see you then. bye bye.

now, "entertainment tonight," the most watched entertainment newsmagazine in the world. robert pattinson's first interviews since the cheating scandal. >> is this insanity for you? >> awkward with jon stewart, with "e.t." in new york. >> anything which limits the possibilities isn't any easier. plus, where is kristen stewart? is robert heartbroken? does his body language tell the real story? what our expert really revealed. >> he leaked out sadness. and america's olympic heroes. swarmed as they return home, react to the r-patz news. >> i think that he's really cute so i would like to meet him. miley cyrus' fiance guilded by a papparazo. the confrontation that nearly got physical.